E-Paper
Covid fast gaining momentum in Haryana, Panchkula enters critical category
Haryana saw an increase of 3,200 coronavirus infections last week (March 22-28) as compared to the week before, registering 7,891 fresh cases
Haryana saw an increase of 3,200 coronavirus infections last week (March 22-28) as compared to the week before, registering 7,891 fresh cases.
The last time a near-similar number of weekly infections were reported during a surge was in mid-August when 7,233 cases were reported during August 17-23.
As of Monday, Gurugram with 1,895 active cases, Karnal 1,427, Ambala 1,064, Panchkula 939 and Kurukshetra with 839 cases were the leading districts in terms of active cases, as per the health department statistics. There were about 9,300 active cases across Haryana till Monday.
“Analysis of per week infections shows that the number of cases is increasing with each passing week. Between February 8-14, 615 new cases were reported. The number of per week cases increased to 684 between February 15-21, rose to 1,054 between February 22-28, escalated to 1,736 between March 1-7, crossed 2,600 during March 8-14, and reached 4,891 between March 15-21,” said an official.
Sampling, vaccination ramped up
Health officials said the sample positivity rate stays at 4.6% as the sampling rate has been consistent. As per the health department data, about 1.60 lakh persons were tested last week as compared to about 1.33 lakh the week before.
“Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) testing and rapid antigen testing ratio in the past 30 days is 98:2 which indicates that we are heavily focused on RT-PCR testing, which is considered the gold standard for Covid diagnosis,” said additional chief secretary (ACS), health, Rajeev Arora.
Arora said that more than 1.63 lakh individuals were vaccinated on Tuesday during the mega-vaccination drive. “We are close to vaccinating 15 lakh people,” the ACS said.
Ambala with over 25,000 inoculations led the way followed by Sonepat with 20,042, Gurugram 15,036, Faridabad 11,507, Bhiwani 9,316, and Sirsa 9,007.
However, certain districts with higher number of active cases seem to be lagging in inoculating its population. While only 794 individuals were vaccinated in Kurukshetra during the mega vaccination drive, Panchkula vaccinators gave jabs to 4,038 people, and 6,312 people got the shots in Karnal.
Panchkula returns to critical category
After making an exit from the critical category in the first week of March, Panchkula made a return after its sample positivity rate increased to 6%.
Districts having a sample positivity rate of more than 6% are classified in the critical category.
Panchkula, which had 964 active cases till Sunday, also has the highest 172 active cases per lakh population which is the highest in Haryana.
Three more districts - Faridabad (8.4%), Gurugram (6.7%) and Rewari (6.5%) continue to have a critical positivity rate of more than 6%.
Fifteen districts still have a positivity rate in the range of 2.6% to 5.3%. This means it is lower than the critical positivity rate of more than 6% but higher than the desirable positivity rate of less than 2%.
Three districts - Nuh (0.8%), Charkhi Dadri (1.1%) and Jhajjar (1.8%) continue to have a desirable positivity rate of less than 2% for the last several weeks.
